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Montecristo no.2 this afternoon.

Monte PE BD 2010 to get rid of the taste of the Vegueros. Very nice!

JL2 my first. Coffee, vanilla, black cherry. Edmundo Dante 54 with some Glenlivet Nadurra to celebrate my first perfect score on an exam. Sent by telepathic super powers -Stogie Boy

2001 Monte "A" should keep me occupied for a few hours...

One of my favorite smokes this days! Yummi!

Quick Reyes and a whisky and ginger before dinner

A very satisfying 13' Lusitania with a bit of cab/merlot from Niagara, Ontario

AME NOV 12 Epi de luxe and some Irish whiskey after a swim on a hot day.

PL Encantos. Very good, but went south near the end. RyJ Ex4. Phenomenal. Nearing the end of this box and it makes me really sad. I just love these. That cherry note is really prevalent. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

05 Partagas P2. Perfect draw and great flavor.

Ending the weekend with a Party Short.

2001 H.Upmann Monarcas

can't wait to pick these up, hope they crack 60rg next year

Last box of the year.. Might as well be a PSP box :-)

Custom rolled for me by Milagro @ Hotel Nacional on May 2, 2014.....excellent stick! Bart

After a long time - it's time to release another piece of Colección Habanos. It's the H. Upmann Mágnum Especial from 2007. 500 books are existing worldwide. All the pictures and downloadable PDFs from the booklet are at my blog. Booklet cover page:

Everyone once in a while I take a picture of my one display humidor where I keep all my singles/ fivers I've acquired by various means (ie emptying boxes to make room and privately trade/bought stick. I thought I would share these pictures also the pictures show my translation from NCs to CC Enjoy Here is my humidor the first day while seasoning with distilled water in two bowls. Taken in June 2011 No the best picture but you can see a very small collection. Taken in August 2011 Yes yes I know I was emphasis on was interested in smoking acid flavored cigars as you can see a few Cubans in there. Taken around October 2011 Organizing to fit more sticks. Taken around February 2012 Starting to get more higher end NCs and couple more CCs. Taken June 2012 Summer of 2012 is when I really started buying more CCs mostly boxes. Now I have acquired more regional CCs Taken September 2012 Here's a picture of my first cooler filled my collection is probably 50/50 CC to NC at this point. Take. October 2012 Mostly Cubans now. Taken in March 2013 Smoking almost exclusively CCs now Taken May 2013 Taken June 2013 Taken August 2013 Taken October 2013 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I like the petite cazadores that i had. All 5 of them i thought were great. A nice toasted tobacco, a but of coffee, a bit of a dark cocoa (ok... maybe it was burnt chocolate) but still, it was good i thought. Like a poor mans Bolivar is what i thought of it. There were plenty of shitty looking ones, but if you get a decent looking bundle they should be good i think. No point in ageing other than the natural ageing from leaving them be for a while when you smoke other stuff etc.

Can I just point out that in an article about Cuban Cigars the photo toping the article is a bunch of Cigars from the Dom Republic

boli pc

Imagine chocolate. Marketed with shiny, glossy, bands wrappers. Gimicky with their filling and add ons and what not. Imagine visiting Belgium's chocolatiers. Imagine pure chocolate - no gimmicks - no wrappers. Imagine eating it fresh off the table of it just solidifying. Imagine how it melts in your mouth from the lukewarm creamy centre from the recently solidified mass of pure buttery fat. Imagine the fact that you have nothing to do but sit there for hours, suckling on the glorious teet of the master chocolatier discussing everything from chocolate to his lifestyle. Imagine the amount of love that goes in and you can see them pour it right into your hand. Imagine if that kind of chocolate costs a fraction of the gimmicky chocolate with their 2-3 shiny wrapper. Now imagine if the feeling lasted 10x longer and you gained no weight after gorging yourself. Which one do you prefer?

I don't think a younger actor would really have fit the role of the Taken protagonist, since it was intended that he be a former CIA officer trying to make up for lost time with his teenage daughter. A 20-something or a 30-something actor would have been a terrible choice for that role. I think Neeson played the part rather perfectly. There are plenty of younger action stars out there - Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Chris Pine (damn weird that the first three current action hero-types I thought of all had Chris as a first name) - who are doing quite well, but it would have been odd for them to play that role. Just MHO, of course. Cheers, ~ Greg ~

Just came back from my trip to Europe. This time is primarily for my GF's birthday so not everything was cigar related as I wanted it to be, however I tried my best to squeezed some smoking time into the itinerary: Smoked a Quai D'Orsay on Quai D'Orsay in Paris, smoked one in high altitude up on the Pyrenees mountain range, visited the elaborated LCDH in Amsterdam, and of course crazy shopping side trip to Andorra! This post is entirely built up on Chris' original Andorra Report few years back. Without Chris I wouldn't even know such a magical place exists. By no means this is a guide but I want to share my experience, so when you ever decide to go it will be a smooth and pleasant trip for you. I visited two towns in Andorra for cigars, Pas de la Casa as well as Andorra la Vella, these are the two towns you want to make a stop if you want to do major shopping. However if you do not have too much time or you are entering from the Spanish border, it is possible to skip Pas de la casa. *Due to forum rules I cannot disclose the name of the cigar vendor, if you are interested please drop me a PM Getting there: On Friday morning we started our journey from Perpignan, France. We took the N116 westward going towards Andorra. Total time for the trip should be around 2:30 hrs, depending on how fast you drive. First half of the trip is a flat, 2-lane freeway, passing through small town once in a while then you need to decelerate to 50km/h, it's a comfort drive. Once you see the big fortress on your right you'll know it's mountain road time! We passed by Mont Louis (great scenery and if you have time I strongly encourage stopping the car and take a few photos), we also cut through Llivia by accident but it was a nice surprise (visited an enclave/exclave - checked). After some more driving inside the valley you know you'll be getting close, there you have two options: To enter the tunnel straight to Andorra la Vella, or skip the tunnel to reach Pas de la Casa. We didn't take the tunnel because we want to go to the nearby Pas de la Casa for lunch and cigar shopping. After some more hairpin turns and hill climbs we reached the border, going into Andorra wasn't a problem at all, the authorities only asked where we are from and let us pass. Pas de la Casa is a small town with an emphasize on cosmetic/perfumerie, fashion, and tabac/liquor shop. We just parked in the "town centre" near the big roundabout, 3 minutes walk to the cigar store and parking is free to boot. Cigar shopping time! Compared to all of you I am just a newbie, so you will probably have a better eye to spot all those exotic stuff. I will let the photos speak. There's only one staff when I walked in, Jose speaks perfect English and knows a ton about his products. Note that in Andorra there will always be a staff that accompany you inside the humidor, don't feel pressured as they think it is a symbol of professional service to help out their client to pick and export their top 3 boxes of cigar, if you have any questions about cigars and a particular box please feel free. My GF knows that I needed mass concentration in this sea of treasures so she took the initiative and talk with the accompanying staff whenever we're in the humidor. All of them seem to find Canada fascinating and will go on and on with my GF regarding that topic Haul from this store: RyJ Short Churchill jar (interestingly jars have the same price as boxes, so I couldn't resist), Juan Lopez Seleccion No 5 Andorra Regional, Bolivar Panetelas box date Mar, 99, one RA Andorra Regional to smoke during lunch *Something interesting I have noticed, Andorra shops loves to give out freebies along with your purchases. I got a bunch of free lighters/cutter with my cigar purchases. The GF got a bunch of perfume samples and tote bags and they make good souvenirs. Lunch: There's a restaurant nearby the cigar store (I think it's called La Residencia), food is alright, but has a big patio that lets you smoke your newly purchased singles. That's it for Pas de la Casa, next stop is Andorra la Vella. Shopping experience was amazing and we visited twice. Stay tuned.

Ooups! Copy/past mistake on vitola in your description here Pres

Some folks might remember these guys. Had a real hard time getting into Kim Mitchell on his own though. http://youtu.be/I-ZIzH6L2EA http://youtu.be/SI6UuwQtcUE Set up the turntable just to be able to crank the sh#t out of these. Some things just sound so good on vinyl.

I seriously doubt it. 1 million cigars is neither here nor there.

A very mild Davidoff Entreacto after lunch. Had a tight draw until I picked out some filler from the end.

smoked an 07 rg lonsdale and an ryj tubo of some sort with MC4 last night good time my friend, which was the ryj?

Not stupid at all my friend. Sealing in the environment supplied by another, the actual water content, assumes that the water content for the space and the tobacco enclosed is perfect as supplied. Why would you do that? Better to adjust the content to your tastes, knowing that you can pull the tube at anytime and get a great tasting cigar, than to leave the conditioning to happenstance. If those cigars go in too wet, you will get moldy cigars… Trust in God, but tie up your horse!!! -Piggy

This may sound stupid but I would take them out of the tube and put them In the Humidor. Guy

Just finished A great Cohiba Sig.2,with about A year on it very good!

Please post pic of the 12 closest friends… -LOL Have a nice time dear and smoke one for the Pig!

Bumped for emailed questions.

Yes. Please some pictures. Been dying to make it there. Hope you and yours have a great time!

this one was tough to watch.. Pirelli played it safe by bringing the harder compound tires , so not much strategy in a 1 stop race..would have been a little more exciting if we saw a 2 or 3 stop race with the slower pit lane speeds.. beautiful venue though but man we need more circuits with elevation changes.

Hope you share some pictures for us that can't make it

Follow the money. The Cuban ex-pat community in south Florida has been influencing elections and policy on this matter for decades. These politicians would have to walk away from this money to lift the embargo.

Cueto Is one of the BEST Roller of Customs, I still have a 2004 Solomones ,that he made for me .

OK, lets be reallistic, America will never accept Cuba.They don't have ANYTHING in commun,It's a cultural thing. That's why It has lasted so long , and It's not ready to end ,(In my opinion ). What would the Cuban gouverment do If It can't blame the U.S. Embargo for their poor gouverment results ? and who would the U.S. blame for the threat theories about Communism at their door step ? Cuban Cigars & rums can be had through the net anyway ,SO ? !!!!! Guy

That's the media for you,they do not care about facts,they just want to be first............... I wonder if Mexico has raised the quota on fakes.............

oops and another Optic 101 from 08

13 SLR A last night. Starts fresh, tickling spices, second 3rd balanced with a hint of sweetness, at then end it gets a bit harsh.

via Google, probably... (just teasing you )

ERDM Grandes De Espana - because I deserve it No need to describe it.

Spending a four day weekend at our house on the beach on the Alabama Gulf Coast watching lots of football, including my 3rd ranked Ole Miss Rebels playing Texas A & M.

And now my personal lottery jackpot. Hopefully good smokes with friends.

I will say it again: Andorra is a beautiful country, people are noble, dress well, orderly, everyone seems happy with their life. The streets are spotless, very modern, with many interesting architectures and designs. Overall it feels different from the surrounding parts of France/Spain. It would be a shame if you go there just for the shopping alone. We headed out at 9:30 from our hotel on the Spain side. It was a quiet Saturday morning, getting back into Andorra was easy, we just drove through the border without needing to stop. *Andorra has a very strong automobile culture, everywhere you'll see anything from tastefully maintained vintage to million-dollar exotics. On our way in we encountered something appeared to be a Mercedes club cruising around. 3 SL Gullwings followed by another 4 CLK-GTRs. Obvious they were too fast so we couldn't catch up with our Fiat Panda nor snap a photo. Before meeting Frederick for a cigar we decided to stop at one more cigar store. Feels like home when I see the sign. Again it is a bit tricky to find, because Google maps won't give you the exact location when you put in the address. It is located within a square and please see above for the exact location. Stock there is amazing, there are alot of boxes that I haven't seen in the previous stores. I walked out with the 2010 Montecristo Edmundo jar, Punch Royal Seleccion 12, and LGC MdO 2 Finally back to Frederick's store. Did I mention you can still smoke a cigar in cigar lounges in Andorra? I picked the Por Larranaga RS, because I really liked the box design. However, despite being a PL fan I did not like this at all. Contrary to the theme of this release, you have to smoke really really slow in order to get only a tiny bit satifaction out of it. GF showed up with 4 shopping bags in hand and I knew I could not afford to light up another one or I will go broke. *Protip - If you are planning for your arrival to Andorra, please cross out Saturday. Why? See the photo below. I could show you a 5-minute video of how many cars we passed by but I think you get the idea. No accidents, just pure volume, it made a 20 min drive into 2 hours. If you have to arrive on Sat, do it early in the morning before 10. *Protip 2 - Fill up your gas before exiting Andorra. When I was there the 95 Sans Plomb was 154 in France and 124.5 in Andorra *Maybe I'm lucky both time we exited Andorra they custom didn't bother to check anyone. Just remember it is 75 cigars per person and you shouldn't have a problem with them. We went back to the inn for more Michelin-star quality food. I'll let the photos do the talking but the onion soup is really something, something that surprised me immensely when I got to the bottom. Chef Valentino loves food, he loves both eating/cooking, and he puts a lot of thoughts in his creation. Best part - My menu costs only 20 eur, GF's is about 40 cause she wanted a big steak with a slab of foie gras that's the same surface area. With a well-fed car carrying two well-fed people, we headed back to France. Route was pretty straight foward, basically go south on N-145, when you reach La Seu D'urgell head east on N 260 towards Puigcerda. Shortly after the road will lead back to Mont Louis where we first came from. *For the paranoid ones (me inlucded), there are no border customs at Puigcerda. That's it for the trip report! I hope it is useful to your trip planning, or even inspire a new travel idea for you. If you have any questions please post them in this thread and I will try my best to answer you, for everything vendor/price related please PM. Some bonus photos from the other segments of my trip: Smoking a Quai D'Orsay on Quai D'Orsay in Paris (Thanks Art for this fabulous 2002 Corona) Morning smoke - the Aude region in France Visited LCDH Amsterdam. Manager Diederek is a sensible gentleman and connoisseur to many fine things in the world. The most tasteful LCDH I have been to, awesome LGC selection too. Thanks for telling me what you thought about the Picadores, I will now set pursue on a few boxes. Apparently you can smoke at LCDH in Andorra too, but I chose the other one because Frederick is cooler. Best feeling in the world, smoking in the comfort of your own home, with windows open and only your boxers on. *This is a flat we rented in Barcelona and the owner is nice enough to let me smoke inside.

Left Pas de la Casa, immediately after you leave town there was a toll gate, about 5-7 eur, and that was the only toll we had to pay in Andorra. Trip to Andorra la Vella takes 45min, as stated by Google maps, but we didn't feel it was that much because there were so much to see. We regretted not stopping to take photos, but if you are not in a rush, I strongly encourage that you do. *Study your route to the cigar stores in La Vella! Don't just rely on GPS, we got lost quite a few times in the downtown area because GPS signal were blocked by the buildings/mountains, and the small streets were hard to navigate for a tourist. We got to the area near the cigar store. First thing we notice in La Vella - there was alot of parking enforcements on the street, one in every few blocks to be exact. I get on average 1 parking ticket bi-monthly in Toronto so I definitely don't want to risk parking on the street. So I chose to park in the nearby parking garage in Pyrenees, free parking if you spend around 20 eur (intersection Av. Meritxell and Car. Dr. Molines). Additional parking available if you turn right, we did it on the first night it was around 3-4eur for 5 hours. If you are bringing your SO, here's the plan: She shops at Pyrenees, you shop at the cigar store. Pyrenees is like the Macy's in Andorra, you can get awesome deals if you know what to look for, plus at the end of the night you get the complimentry parking. My GF knows a thing or two about cigar (she said she likes triple coronas) so she accompanied me to the store. Frederick was the one who took care of me at the shop. He has vast knowledge about cigar (and everything else happening on Earth), he has also been to Havana a couple of times so we had quite a great chat aside from the shopping. He also invited me to come back the next morning to enjoy a cigar at their lounge (more on that later). For now, it's photo time! I left with a box of Bolivar Lonsdale, H. Upmann No. 1 (it's for Chris, it will branch into another story in my Europe trip which I am quite thankful), and Quai D'Orsay Gran Corona. Time for some rest. If Andorra = Christmas, then Masia d'en Valenti will be New Years Eve. It is also the dark horse out of our two weeks vacation. Masia d'en Valenti is a warm and cozy inn run by a Spanish couple - Masia the innkeep and Valentino the chef. I picked this accommodation at first simply because it is only 5-minute drive from the Andorra/Spain border so I could make multiple drops in and out of the city. Rate is also reasonable, I paid 75eur/night for a basic room, I think if you add a little bit more you get better room views + jet bath. *The only downside - really hard to find. If you search on google maps they're give you the wrong location. It is a really tiny 1-car exit off the freeway right after you leave border. We came in late (11pm), but nevertheless Valentino came out to the parking lot to greet us and showed us to our room (he even let us pick the one we prefer). Check-in desk is inside the dining hall, as we were busy writing down passport information we noticed a really bold, full bodied smell with garlic/butter/sea salt. There was only one 1 table left in the dining hall, what is Valentino cooking that it filled up the entire dining room with this aroma? Valentino said he was baking escargots. "Uno mas, por favor!" We felt guilty as we just had dinner, but it was the best mid-night snack I've had for a long time. *The sharp eyes will find an anomaly, yes it is a red. It's not world class but it paired really well with the snails. The dish is so good that we decided to have breakfast and lunch there in the next day. Is the inn cigar smoking friendly? I never asked. We were tremendously overwhelmed with the taste of the snails. Plus we needed to get some rest because we wanted to get back to Andorra at 10am to meet with Frederick and enjoy a smoke in the lounge.